Walks in.
Open shirt. Sleeves rolled up to the elbows. Hair a little dishevelled, always. A napkin on his shoulder — that napkin that had become part of him like a signature, like a gesture that never needs explaining.
And then the smile.
Wide. Warm. The kind of smile that asks nothing in return, that tells you immediately you’re in the right place, that tonight you’ll eat well and laugh even better.
In Viserba — the northern district of Rimini, where the sea meets a quieter, more authentic Italy — there was a time when feeling truly at home in Rimini meant simply opening that door.
The door of the Da Todro restaurant.
Anyone who’s spent a summer in northern Rimini knows that name. Or knows someone who does. Or has heard “Todro” pronounced with that special cadence used for things that matter — not in passing, but with that extra half-second reserved for what really counts.
Who was Gianfranco “Todro” Panighelli
He wasn’t just a restaurateur.
He was the host in the fullest, oldest sense of the word — the one who knew every table, every regular, every family story that had unfolded in his dining room over forty years.
Born on 20 March 1946, heir to a family of fishermen and entrepreneurs from Viserba. As a young man he played football with talent, then came the hotel years — like so many Riminesi who built this city season by season. The sea, football, tourism, the table. A typically Romagnolo trajectory, one that in 1981 brought him to open Da Todro in Viserba.
From that day on, he never stopped.
Over forty years. Same place. Same philosophy: simplicity and quality, no compromise. The dining room was an extension of his personality — chaotic in the right way, warm, alive. Rimini’s mayor Jamil Sadegholvaad called him “a pillar of the history of hospitality in Rimini and Viserba in particular.” On social media, someone had elected him unofficial mayor of Viserba — not as a joke, but as real recognition. One of those roles you earn without standing for election, evening after evening, dish after dish.
Some remembered him as funny.
Some called him a talker.
Some — his daughter Chiara — described him as “unique, friendly, chatty, sometimes difficult,” but completely renewed around his grandchildren. All the facets of a real man, not a postcard character.
He passed away in March 2025, aged 78, after months of illness during which he refused to stop being there — in his restaurant, among his people. Il Resto del Carlino headlined: The smile of Todro has gone out. Three words. A complete portrait.
But the dining room has not gone dark. His wife Mara Castellani and daughter Chiara Panighelli, with Salvo in the kitchen, carry Da Todro forward — cooking “like it used to be, that of Gianfranco Panighelli known as Todro, now carried on by his family.”
Arriving at Da Todro: the place and the atmosphere
Viserba is the northern district of Rimini. Not the historic centre, not the boulevard of big clubs. A seaside neighbourhood with its own identity — beach clubs, fishing boats, families returning every summer to the same spot for generations.
Da Todro is here. And when you arrive for the first time, you understand immediately that this is not a place trying to impress you.
No glowing signs. No studied design or architecture that wants to dazzle. You find a real Romagnolo seafood restaurant — the dining room has the warmth of things well-used: tables set with care but without ceremony, the right light, the hum of a working room, the scent of grilled fish reaching you from the entrance.
And you find him — or at least, for forty years you found him.
Todro coming to meet you. Welcoming you as if he’d been expecting you, as if he already had in mind what to feed you. Seating you with that ease of a seasoned host, no fuss, none of the formal ceremony of restaurants that take themselves too seriously.
The first thing you notice — always the same: the napkin on his shoulder. Then the smile. Then you realise you won’t be studying the menu much, because there’s a better way to eat here.
The real menu wasn’t the written one: it was him
Many people preferred not to look at the menu.
They left it to Todro.
Not out of laziness. Out of trust — the kind that builds over years, with customers who return, who understand that the man with the napkin on his shoulder already knows better than you what’s worth eating tonight. “What’s on tonight, Todro?” And he’d reply with the day’s catch, the season, what the sea had brought. The written menu was a map. The real menu was born from dialogue — from that conversation between host and guest that in ordinary restaurants barely exists any more.
With Todro, it wasn’t a performance. It was the thing itself.
The salt-crust prawns ritual: the dish that was him
There’s one dish, more than any other, that tells you who Todro was.
The salt-crusted prawns with pinzimonio (fresh vegetables with olive oil dip), seasoned at the table according to his ritual.
It’s not a complicated technique. Quality prawns cooked under a crust of coarse salt — the salt seals, cooks slowly, keeps the juices in. The pinzimonio alongside: fresh vegetables, good oil, something simple that cleans the palate between bites.
But what made this dish special wasn’t the recipe.
It was the gesture.
Todro would arrive at the table with the dish, pause, and begin. He’d break the salt crust with a confident move — years of repeated gestures, become automatic but never mechanical. He’d arrange the prawns, adjust the dip, explain. Not with the voice of a waiter reciting instructions. With the voice of someone who loves what he’s doing and wants you to love it with him.
He was — as Il Resto del Carlino wrote — a “pyrotechnic personality” capable of adding gestures and rituals that transformed meals into experiences. The Da Todro dining room was a small theatre of Romagnolo conviviality. That table, in that moment, was the centre of the world.
Customers never felt like spectators.
They felt like protagonists.
The dishes at Da Todro: seafood the Viserba way
The philosophy was clear from 1981: simplicity and quality. No foams, no edible flowers, no modern reinvention for its own sake. Romagnolo seafood cooking — the kind that knows where the fish comes from and respects it.
Here’s what you find — and what you’ll still find today, because the family has stayed faithful to this approach.
Stuffed squid on the grill (calamarone ripieno alla griglia). Simple in appearance, difficult in practice. A large squid, stuffed and grilled: it requires a cooking time that forgives no mistakes — a minute too long and it turns rubbery, a minute too few and it doesn’t convince. When it’s done right, as it has always been here, the flesh is tender, the stuffing flavoursome, the grill marks just right without burning. This is the kind of dish that doesn’t need explaining: it speaks for itself.
Sardoncini scottadito (finger-burning fresh sardines). Outside Romagna, almost no one knows them. National food guides ignore them. Here they’re an institution. Small, flavourful, with that Adriatic saltiness you won’t find anywhere else — eaten hot, straight off the grill, burning your fingers as the name suggests. The name is not an exaggeration: they really do burn, and you eat them anyway, because waiting would mean losing them.
Baby cuttlefish with mantis shrimp (seppioline con mazzancolle). A pairing that works through contrast: the delicate sweetness of baby cuttlefish against the more pronounced savouriness of mantis shrimp. Nothing baroque — just quality ingredients and the right moment of cooking. One of those dishes that doesn’t look like much on the written menu and then, when it arrives, you understand everything.
Grilled artichokes with balsamic vinegar (carciofi grigliati con aceto balsamico). The land note amid the sea. Here Romagna remembers it’s not only the Adriatic — it’s also hinterland, hills, kitchen gardens. Grilled artichokes with balsamic vinegar bring you back down to earth in the most pleasant way, and they pair with the fish better than you’d expect.
The catch of the day. What you won’t find on any fixed menu, because it depends on what the market offered that morning. This was Todro’s kingdom — the dish he decided, he recommended, that changed every evening. Today the family carries on this tradition: always ask what’s available, before fixing on something written down.
Da Todro restaurant: practical information
When guests at my hotel ask where to eat proper seafood in northern Rimini, the answer never changes.
Da Todro.
Not because it’s the trendiest spot in Rimini — it isn’t, and thank goodness. But because it’s a real place, run by a real family, with a kitchen that knows what it’s doing.
Da Todro Restaurant
Viserba, Rimini — northern area, a few minutes by car from the centre
Official website: datodro.it
What to order on your first visit: start with the salt-crusted prawns. It’s the dish that tells you better than anything else what this place is about. Then ask what the catch of the day is — trust the family, as people trusted Todro. You won’t go wrong.
Booking is essential. Da Todro has always been a much sought-after restaurant — it still is today. Don’t show up without a reservation on a summer evening. Call ahead, plan, and then enjoy your evening without a care.
At the Aqua Hotel, that’s the answer we give when guests ask where to eat proper seafood.
A specific place. With a real story behind every dish.
You know where to find me. At the Aqua Hotel.
